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KFWB is a Los Angeles, California AM radio station operating on 980 kHz with 5,000 watts of power from a transmitter site near Lincoln Park (East Los Angeles). The station has had a mostly all-news format since 1968.

History

The station's history goes back to 1925, when it was launched by Sam Warner, the founder of Warner Brothers. The station launched the careers of such stars as Ronald Reagan and Bing Crosby. The station was the first to broadcast the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.

Although some think its call letters stand for Keep Filming Warner Bros., actually the "K" indicates all stations West of the Mississippi. The remaining "FWB" stands for Four Warner Brothers, all of whom were involved with the station. The station was established during a time of financial troubles for Warner Bros.

A 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon, produced by Warner Bros. (and directed by Chuck Jones), entitled "Bedtime for Sniffles," has Sniffles the mouse trying to stay awake for Santa Claus, and a radio announcer signs off for the night identifying the station as KFWB. Another cartoon of the same year, "The Timid Toreador," co-directed by Bob Clampett, shows an announcer broadcasting on this station. (A good trick, since the action takes place in Mexico, which has a totally different ITU prefix block.)

In 1946, KFWB imported two disc jockeys from New York City: Maurice Hart of WNEW, whose drive-time show Start the Day Right was described as "Words and Music Straight from the Hart", and Martin Block, who coined the phrase "Make-Believe Ballroom", which was later used by Al Jarvis when Block returned to New York. In those days, disc jockeys selected their own music, either from KFWB's extensive record library, or new songs brought to them by "song pluggers". Old and new, vocal and instrumental were mixed together to the disc jockey's choice.

In 1958, under new owners Crowell-Collier Broadcasting, Chuck Blore transformed the station into a Top 40 format called Channel 98 Color Radio. The station became one of the most highly listened to stations in the Southland and in the nation. But alas, times changed, and in the mid-60's, KFWB was overtaken by rival KRLA. Then KRLA was put in second place by the launch of Boss Radio at 93/KHJ, and this relegated KFWB to the position of the third-place pop music station in the L.A. market.

KFWB was later purchased by Westinghouse in 1966. On March 11, 1968, the station was relaunched as an ALL NEWS radio station. The station promoted itself with its slogan, "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world." Its goal was to give a full newscast every 22 minutes, the average commute time in Los Angeles.

From its 1968 switch to all-news until around 2002, KFWB was known as "News 98" with SigAlerts known as "News 98 Nightmare" during its traffic reports.

Current station

Today KFWB is owned by CBS Radio, a subsidiary of CBS Corporation that owns several CBS affiliates. CBS also owns KNX, the only other all-news station in Los Angeles. This is ironic, because KFWB and KNX famously feuded for years, both on radio and in television advertising. Like its former Westinghouse, now CBS Radio, sister stations (and fellow all-news stations) 1010 WINS in New York and KYW News Radio 1060 in Philadelphia, KFWB has a running teletype sound effect in the background during regular newscasts.

In the spring of 2003, KFWB began to broadcast the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games over the radio. For this reason, the station had to abandon its other slogan, "All news, all the time." In comparison to KNX, KFWB runs more sports stories, has longer traffic reports, and updates top headlines every ten minutes instead of KNX, which updates headlines at the top and bottom of the hour.

KFWB once aired not only the Dodgers games, but also many National Football League games from Westwood One. The NFL broadcasts stopped after the 2007 Pro Bowl, and the Dodgers left KFWB after the 2007 season, some months later, to return to KABC. With that, the slogan "all news, all the time" has returned.

Studios and transmitter

The original KFWB studios and transmitter location were at the Warner Bros. Studios, which is now KTLA-TV, at 5800 Sunset Blvd. One of the two original towers still stands prominently out front. Due to RF interference getting into the movie studio's "talkies" sound equipment, the transmitter was moved in 1928 to the roof of the Warner Theater, now Pacific Theater, at 6423 Hollywood Blvd. Eventually the studios were also moved to the Warner Theater. Those two towers are still there, as well. Years later, when KFWB was sold to KFWB Broadcasting Co. (Harry Maizlish), the studios moved to 6419 Hollywood Blvd. (now demolished), and the transmitter moved to the area near La Cienega and Rodeo Blvd., about 3 blocks south of the KECA/KABC plant. In the mid 1950s, the transmitter moved, again, to its present location, diplexed with KLAC in East LA. The studios moved in 1977 to 6230 Yucca St., also in Hollywood. In June 2005, KFWB abandoned its longtime Hollywood studios to move into new studios in Miracle Mile.

External links

• KFWB News 980 website
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• HD Radio stations
• CBS Radio stations
• Radio stations in Los Angeles, California
• Westinghouse Broadcasting
• News and talk radio stations
• Radio stations established in 1925